Basingstoke resident Reg Simpson, 64, has declared today that he doesn’t know how much more of this he can take. Renowned as Britain’s angriest man due to his daily outbursts on radio phone-ins, Reg has conceded that the MPs’ expenses scandal has placed a huge demand on his anger reserves, and that on top of ‘the general sorry state of things,’ it has just about finished him off.

‘I was hoping to retire this year after fifty years of being angry,’ said Reg today, ‘but at the moment it’s just one thing after another.’